Eric K.

I've been a loyal customer of VRBO for nearly 17 years. I can tell you that before its buyout by HomeAway and subsequently Expedia, this was an exceptional company. However, it is no longer the same company. What was formerly an annual fee of less than $100 is now over $1000. And what am I paying for? A page filled with ads from other vendors, marketing of an absolutely useless and very expensive "Vacation Protection" that covers "accidental damage", 3+% credit card transaction fees, heavy pressure for instant booking in which the property owner has little opportunity to weed out potentially bad guests, and now and outrageous 9+% "service fee" imposed on the traveler! What does that get the traveler? According to VRBO, a "Book with Confidence Guarantee", a misleading title that implies the traveler receives a benefit. In reality it just lines the pockets of Expedia shareholders in addition to paying for search engine placement, ensuring their virtual monopoly on the market.

What does the service fee provide me? Lengthy inquiries to my expensive ad that ultimately result in the following types of responses from potential guests:

"Thank you for your prompt reply, Eric. However upon further consideration with my husband we've realized the service fee is over 10% of the cost of the visit and we don't want to pay that. We could use that money towards an extra night elsewhere, which is probably not your fault but just our perspective of things. Thank you anyway, I will have to figure something else out. Sorry for any inconvenience."

So I am the one who takes the financial risk in purchasing a vacation home, putting many years of effort, money and physical labor into it so it can be the best it can be, and struggle to price it competitively in the market, and Expedia makes the profit off my work. Multiplied by hundreds of thousands of similar property owners, Expedia is making billions off of this service fee.

Do yourself a favor and advertise or search for a vacation home on sites such as homeescape dot com that do not charge travelers or owners fees.

I've been a loyal homeowner advertising on VRBO and HomeAway for 16 years. What was once an incredibly efficient and inexpensive way to advertise your vacation home has become a nightmare in the years since the acquisition of VRBO by HomeAway, and subsequently by Expedia. And although I have paid HomeAway tens of thousands of dollars over the years to advertise on the site, they have now chosen to charge the travelers! Each and every change I have observed over the last few years has had no other benefit than to increase profit for the company that has this market cornered. Unfortunately, greed is what will be the downfall of this company whose customer service has been abysmal, and who will very shortly (without a doubt) conceal identities and contact information between owners and guests to enforce their outrageous ten percent fees. These fees, despite admonitions on their site, provide the traveler ZERO benefits. The fee can amount to hundreds of dollars added to the price of your rental. When I asked a CS representative why my guests needed to pay the fee, he maintained that HomeAway has earned the fee as they brought me the guest. I'm sorry, what do I pay those thousands of dollars to HomeAway for?!?

I can't believe SiteJabber found 27 idiots that gave HomeAway 5 stars. Maybe Executive management at HomeAway numbers 27?